Recently, security concerns have increased dramatically. After the events of Sep. 11, 2001, a renewed awareness for security has been raised. Many countries, governments, businesses, and even individuals have implemented new security procedures in light of these events. Many of the new security procedures relate to the airline travel industry. However, new security procedures for entering a government building or other location have also been implemented.
Such new security procedures for entering a government building or business location include more rigorous screening procedures and issuance of an identification card. One drawback of known methods for issuing an identification card is that the identification card may not be immediately available. A user may need to submit contact information such as name, address, company name, and other information that is to be printed on the identification card. The user may also be required to either submit a photograph of the user or have a photograph taken. After receiving the user contact information and photograph, the user information and photograph are submitted to a central location for printing the identification card. Therefore, the user may have to wait up to several days or more to receive the identification card. The identification card may need to be printed at a central location because a particular type of printer may need to be used to print the identification card. The user may be provided with a temporary pass until the identification card is received. The temporary pass, however, may not include a photograph of the user. Therefore, because the user may be required to use a temporary pass for a period of time, the user may be using a less secure identification card which may be lost or stolen and used by an unauthorized user.
Another drawback with existing systems is that a photograph of a user may not provide an accurate depiction of the user. For example, the user may change hairstyle and/or hair color which may not be shown in the photograph. Therefore, if the user desires to obtain an identification card reflecting a change in personal appearance, the user may be required to repeat the process described above and be issued another temporary pass while a new identification card is printed and forwarded to the user.
Systems for creating identification cards are known. However, present systems have various drawbacks. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,528 issued to Stechmann et al. discloses a card creation apparatus. The apparatus, however, enables a user to specify locations of layout frames of a video picture and cardholder information fields which are to be printed on a card. Enabling the user to specify where cardholder information and a picture are to be printed on the card results in various card configurations that are more time consuming to read because information is not located in a designated position. U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,356 discloses an access control system. The system obtain an image of an identification card of a user so that the image may be placed on an access pass along with other user information. This is troublesome for users that may not have an identification card that may be used.